via Malawi ignores Mugabe ICC pullout call – NewsDay Zimbabwe June 2, 2015
LILONGWE— Malawian government has reiterated its commitment to the Rome Statute of International Criminal Justice (ICC) saying it will not take heed of calls from African Union and Sadc chairman President Robert Mugabe to withdraw ahead of the 25th Africa Union summit which will take place in South Africa from June 7 to 15.
Malawi’s Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister Samuel Tembenu and spokesperson for the Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation ministry Quent Kalichero were quoted in the Sunday Times of May 31 saying Malawi remained a committed member of ICC and had no intentions to pull out of the international body.
“Malawi remains in the ICC. We are still a member of the ICC, Malawi has never hinted on withdrawing from being a member as that would have been made public,” said Tembenu in an interview with the Sunday Times.
Mugabe is on record during the 24th AU assembly in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to have appealed to all Africa nations to cease being part of the ICC citing the court targeted Africa’s leaders only instead of ensuring justice universally.
On May 25, a group of 35 African civil society organisations working on human rights and international criminal justice including Malawi’s Centre for Human Rights Watch, Kenya’s section of the International Criminal Jurists and the Southern Africa Centre for Litigation hailed Malawi and other African countries party to the ICC for expressing strong support for the ICC, in a joint statement addressed to the Foreign Affairs and Justice minister.
The 35 civil society groups urged Malawi and other African countries that are yet to domesticate to do so as a further step to fight impunity whenever serious allegations of crime against humanity are raised.
Malawi signed and ratified the Rome Statute of the ICC on March 3, 1999 and September 19, 2002 respectively, but is yet to domesticate it. – Nyasa Times
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